


Enigma

by Honeyrobincreamcake



Series: Enigma [1]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Chiss hybrid, Gen, Genocide, Implied Torture, Kallus and Zeb are a bit loony in the head, Kallus was a receptionist, Quasi-friendships, The confusing relationship between a former murderer and an survivor, Things are confusing, Zeb makes odd life choices, but he's allowed to do that, children suffer, death camps, detachment to death, odd relationships, probably wont end here, secret languages are mentioned, there is blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 02:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14439696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honeyrobincreamcake/pseuds/Honeyrobincreamcake
Summary: A year after the republic establishes itself Zeb accompanies Kallus to get his students back from a holding station and when tragedy strikes he contemplates the intricacies of his relationship with his people’s killer.





	Enigma

**Author's Note:**

> I’m back!
> 
> This is a dark story and takes place in my Chiss hybrid AU, which I will be rewriting.  
> After watching the finale I was fascinated with the possible relationship dynamics between the two, this it is an and innately complex subject far more complex than most relationships. It’s kind of like the dynamic I was curious about seeing between Maul and Kanan but it didn’t happen. The possibilities of the relationship between these two goes beyond romance there’s a sea of unexplored areas with these two especially because of what happened on Lasan. I think a lot of people forget that Kallus is basically an ex-Nazi officer who carried out the execution of innocents among other crimes and Zeb is a genocide survivor, and somehow the two end up forming a civil relationship I don’t see enough stories exploring that and I can’t stop wondering how that would play out.
> 
> Their relationship in this story is a complex one, it’s not sexual (honestly I doubt Zeb would be interested in romance with anyone after his ordeal, any type of abuse can squash that especially if lasts a long time) but it is a strong connection, as Zeb says, it’s not a friendship not really but it is still familiar. The two are attached to each other but tempers flare easily because of their past. Zeb likes Kallus because he represents a part of himself that died on Lasan, when he looks at him he sees his people he’s possessive of that “portal”, I imagine Kallus is there because of guilt and the familiarity Zeb brings- Zeb’s possessiveness may have hindered his ability to interact with other rebellion members effectively though Kallus accepted it out of a sense of obligation- In short their relationship is a complex enigma and it does have psychological aspects which I hope to explore later you can thank the psychology classes I’ve been taking(fun!)

The day started off sunny like it had on Lasan that fateful day.  
One year after the new republic put down its roots, they were finding the first imperial prisoners of war held by their empire in retaliation of the defectors they were linked to, Kallus’ students were among them, some of them at least.

Zeb didn’t care to think about what happened to the others, but he knew. So did Kallus but he didn’t falter.

The nightmare of a day had started with a question.

“Will you go with me?” The question was directed at all of them, Hera, Jacen, the visiting Sabine and him. Zeb wanted to tell Kallus that he was a big boy, he could go himself, but he didn’t, he could keep vigil after they returned from the station.

Or so he thought.

The others agreed readily, they had forgotten what that morning was it was easier for Sabine to do that now, she was young, young enough to deceive herself into thinking Lira San made everything better. Hera was a mother she had better things to do than remember the anniversary of the start of a genocide and Jacen could barely remember what day of the week it was he was barely school age.

Zeb excused them just as he pardoned Kallus for interrupting his vigil, it was now or never, the older ones were already facing trial, the younger ones some still younger than Ezra was when he left, would be placed in foster care a world they couldn’t comprehend, Sabine and Hera were still reeling over the implications of the younger students’ existence.

“They are advanced,” Kallus had told them.

“The empire was sick,” Sabine had said.

A fitting statement for that morning and no one argued.

The station the children were being held at was on an outer rim planet that Zeb was all too familiar with as was Kallus. If Jacen wasn't with them Zeb would have put up a fight and refused to go back to that hellhole alive. Red dust billowed around their feet, choking Jacen whose small size put him in the thick of it, Zeb placed him on his shoulders getting him out of the cloud.

Zeb wished Kanan was here, he would have provided a measure of comfort not found anywhere else, but he had Jacen somehow that was almost as good.

The building was as Zeb remembered it, tall and reinforced with slabs upon slabs of cold metal the barb wire fence stretched on for miles around the enclosed “Recreational yard”, what little paint there was peeled down like long strips of flesh.

“Oh,” Kallus said as they came to a stop in front of the station. Sabine glanced at him as she removed her helmet and offered it to Jacen.

“What?” She asked fanning away the grains of the dust that colored her cheeks red and turned Kallus’ blonde hair copper.

Kallus didn’t respond instead he walked up the steps and eyed the door oddly, so he too had forgotten but least he remembered now Zeb wouldn’t suffer alone. Hera examined the building with a skeptical eye, Zeb imagined she knew what it was but he doubted she remembered what planet they were on when Kanan executed a failed jailbreak while she was asleep.

Then again Hera was pretty cognitive about things that pertained to Kanan.

The cameras in front of the door still worked and it creaked open seconds later, Kallus took several steps back in a muted display of shock, Zeb jumped and Jacen mirrored him like most young children do. A bent old lady emerged from the building flanked by two officers clad in new republic garb, Zeb had to remind himself they were friends.

“Can I help you?” The older lady asked.

“My students, I was told they were here,” Kallus said, the woman stared at him blankly. “Merle and Theovor Cox, they were scheduled to be released this morning.”

“Oh right,” the woman said. “Now I remember.”

“I wasn’t aware these camps were still operational,” Hera cut in, Kallus looked at his feet. “Why are you housing children here?”

“We can’t afford to waste valuable structures these days,” The woman said with an understanding nod in Zeb’s direction. “We have a waiting room.”

“You could stay out here,” Kallus said mildly. 

Hera seemed ready to agree, Sabine had chosen to fall silent observing them all carefully.

“Jacen can hardly breathe out here,” Zeb said.

That was the end of that discussion.

The inside of the station was still dark, but significantly cleaner the tile was no longer stained brown with crusted blood, the cell bars almost looked like new but at the base of one Zeb spotted purple fur wrapped around the steel rods flecked by flakes of decade old blood.

Another forgotten memory, one that use to have breath.

They cut through the west wing avoiding the east wing all together Zeb was thankful for that, he tuned the old woman’s yammering out, she seemed proud of the camp’s “restoration”. When they arrived at the waiting room Kallus was the first one in, he came out before anyone else could even see the room almost bumping into a flustered Hera, he claimed he needed to check on his students, it wasn’t a request it was a demand and his voice still carried enough imperial command that the woman complied immediately. 

When they were gone Zeb saw exactly why Kallus left, the waiting room was nothing more than the refurbished execution chamber, the tables and tools were gone as was the giant vat that still gave Zeb nightmares, the tile had been ripped up that was a smart move, no amount of scrubbing would remove the outlines of bodies ingrained by acid.  
Zeb could still hear the sound of what was left of those corpses being dragged across the tile.  
Nicely padded chairs lined the wall a window let in a substantial amount of light, but it was the execution chamber by no less. Jacen whimpered and crawled down from Zeb’s shoulders, he ran to Hera and hugged her legs tightly, to Zeb that was yet another confirmation that Jacen was going to be like his father.

Zeb retreated from the room ignoring Hera’s concerned calls he ran down the hall on instinct he found a large crevice and wormed his way between it.

There was a time, in the distant past, that Zeb could easily slide between the stone wedges deep enough that it took an electric prod to get him back out. That was before Kanan, before Hera, before all the kids but it wasn’t before Kallus. Zeb tried to pull his arm under his chest but failed he had Hera to thank for fattening him up again.

Zeb couldn’t take this, he never expected to spend Lasan’s anniversary at the camp he spent over a year hoping to die in. The stones pressed painfully against his stomach restricting his airflow but he tolerated it, there was nowhere safer in the building than that crevice, the ghosts of officers, uncaring doctors and the blonde haired receptionist with braces and a mean streak superimposed themselves over the halls, for a moment Zeb swore he could see them move.

But they were just images.

Memories.

Zeb rubbed at the spot on his arm where an old wound had healed, it still hurt when he applied pressure to it but it was a reminder that those memories were real, they weren’t just in his mind.  
Lasan was just a distant memory to the republic especially now. After he introduced Kallus to the lasats on Lira San he had deemed it appropriate to tell the Senate they could declassify lasats as extinct.  
They did, and Lasan hadn’t been mentioned since except in passing, unlike Alderaan which had an entire evening to commemorate its destruction. Of course, unlike Alderaan, the annexation of Lasan stretched on for years while the Senate watched helplessly, death camps quietly popped up throughout the outer rim while the rebellion did nothing.

But they were fledglings, there was nothing that could be done, Zeb never blamed the rebellion once. But it was an ugly part of history no one wanted to remember, except Zeb, he needed it to be remembered.

A loud clanging drew Zeb’s attention, his ears perked in alarm even as he reminded himself there were no more butchers here, not unrepentant ones, he crawled from the crevice and crept down the hall, a scream echoed through the compound just as he turned the corner and spotted Kallus and his students, the children were on the floor, eyes glazed, cheeks flushed, and their tongues swollen a thick stream of blood pooled from their nostrils the woman stood over them wiping at the blood with her shawl. Zeb tilted his head curiously at the familiar sight, he locked eyes with Kallus and heard the silent plea.

“Do not move!” The old lady shouted. “I’m calling the health department!”

“Wait!”

The woman ran from the hall, seconds later a near invisible shield flickered on closing off both sides of the hallway, boxing the four of them in.  
Prison break shields so they had kept those.

“These won’t contain a virus you know!” Zeb yelled at the old woman. “They’re electric barriers!”

“It’s no use,” Kallus said flatly, he grabbed the girl’s hand briefly before dropping it and grimacing as he rubbed his hands together.

“Disruptors?” Zeb asked, he was surprised at how calm he felt he placed his finger against the boy’s cheek, his burning fingers answered his question.

“It appears so,”

“How?”

Kallus shrugged keeping his eyes trained on his students, Zeb looked at them for a moment longer then turned his eyes to the ceiling, the skylight was still there but the bars were gone, if the shield didn’t cover the ceiling they might have stood a chance of escaping.  
The irony of the situation didn’t escape Zeb, but he took no pleasure in children’s suffering he unbuttoned the first row of their shirts fanning the material to at least provide them a brief reprieve of whatever was ravaging their thin bodies.

“I’m sorry,” Kallus said abruptly. 

“For what?” 

“I should have come alone,”

Zeb scanned the walls, looking for any leftover marks from the lasats who died there, he found a series of small claw marks and dragged his hand over it.

“I survived this place once,” Zeb said.

“Yes,” Kallus said tensely. “But I fail to see how that relates to-”

“I can do it again,” Zeb said firmly. “It’s nice to be here again, in a way.”

Kallus looked at him like he had lost his mind, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket he dabbed at the blood on the boy’s face.

“How could this possibly be nice?” Kallus asked quietly. “You know better than anyone-”

“So do you, and every other imperial who’s ever stepped foot in here!” Zeb snapped then added more calmly. “It’s nice to remember.”

They rarely spoke about Kallus’ involvement with the lasats after the initial siege, when they did it was never in the presence of the others that was one secret they agreed to keep between them, Zeb didn’t know why but it seemed right. That tidbit of history was personal and would remain that way, it tethered them together even more forcefully.

“Why would you want to remember this place,” Kallus asked more cautiously this time.

“The same reason I kept you around, one of them anyway,” Zeb said, taking a moment to put his thoughts into words. “Because I don’t want to forget.”

“If you could explain that first part...” Kallus began, trailing off as Merle coughed up a glob of blood and began choking on it, Zeb realized how inappropriate their conversation but he doubted the children could hear them anymore and there was nothing normal about his and Kallus’ connection anyway. That is what Zeb preferred to call it, whatever held them together wasn’t a quite friendship Zeb wasn’t sure what it was but it was familiar, rooted in the past it connected them dysfunctionally in the present.

“You’re one of the last shreds I have to connect myself to my people,” Zeb said when he was sure Kallus had wiped the clot away.

“But Lira-”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to jump on that boat too!” Zeb snorted crossing his arms he glared at Kallus who put his hands up defensively. “It’s not the same, my people, my culture, my family are dead, nothing is going to change that.”

“Of course not, of course not,” Kallus said appeasingly Zeb realized he may have thought he was going to attack him, in the closed in space Kallus would have nowhere to go. Not wanting to rekindle Kallus’ fear of lasats Zeb forced himself to calm down.

“But you were there,” Zeb continued, absentmindedly rubbing his claws against their sheaths. “So that’s why.”

“And the other reasons?” Kallus asked, Zeb, glared at him again assuming he was fishing for a compliment when he looked at him and saw the genuine curiosity on his face Zeb realized it was just his nature rearing up again. It was that insatiable desire for knowledge that got on everyone’s nerves.

Every day Zeb wondered if Thrawn was like that too constantly prying at every turn, yakking Ezra’s ear off over the simplest matter, the notion made Zeb smile and caused him to grow fonder of Kallus, it made him feel closer to Ezra and it seemed to have a similar effect on Hera but for different reasons.

“Those are complicated Kallus,” Zeb said. “But you’re not half bad.”

“I can accept that,” Kallus said with a nod.

“Well you kinda have to,” Zeb said with a shrug.

They turned their eyes to the children who writhed slightly and coughed, Zeb regretted not paying more attention to them, but he knew from experience there was nothing that could be done.  
Somehow they were suffering from disruptor exposure and Zeb doubted it was caused by leftover energy all these years later.

The sight reminded him of all those years ago when he watched his people cook from the inside out, seeing the flesh peel away from their bones leaving bloody skeletons, if Zeb was younger and had every piece of his psyche he would be terrified over the sight that was going to unfold before them if the woman didn’t turn off the shields soon.

This was shaping out to be a very bad anniversary.

Zeb looked over at Kallus who was leaning down beside his student, exposing the thin line of blue that disappeared beneath his shirt collar Zeb assumed it went further and that there were more splotches like Jacen’s green markings that were scattered around his tiny body easily covered by clothing, perhaps that was the norm for hybrids, in any account it served Kallus well, he was able to pass for fully human for decades.  
The revelation of his Chiss ancestry had brought a flood of excuses or perhaps rationalizations to Zeb’s mind, if all Chiss shared traits like Thrawn perhaps that explained the length of time it took Kallus to realize how horrible his actions were or why he took part in the campaign at all.

But they didn’t explain much at all, the disdain Thrawn held for living creatures had nothing to do with Kallus, they were two different people and Kallus’ dislike of lasats had started with a mercenary. Eventually Zeb came to the conclusion that if he wanted to keep Kallus around, he was going to have to accept his past for what it was with no excuses, it was at that point he demanded to know the full extent of Kallus’ involvement and found out who that annoying receptionist was with the lisp, Zeb remembered nodding and he couldn’t recall the next few days that followed but he kept Kallus around almost like an old teddy bear on a keychain. 

Zeb couldn’t let him go because that would mean letting go of the lasats Kallus represented of the lost pieces of him Kallus embodied and bowing his head and submitting to the growing trend to push Lasan to the back of history. So Zeb lugged him around, halfway enjoying the sense of debt Kallus held towards him because it meant he wouldn’t leave.

Of course, Zeb knew Kallus wasn’t his, he didn’t own him, not truly. Kallus was free to find other friends, pick a mate and start a family if he chose the only thing stopping Kallus were the roadblocks he put up in his own mind, Zeb felt bad about that because over the years he had grown to care about the man at the same time he was happy to have lasting company.

The boy coughed again, Kallus was going to be broken up over their deaths for a while if he wasn’t already cracking, Zeb stroked the boy’s forehead he was still too hot to touch for long, he was going to die soon. It would be months before the Republic confirmed that disruptors were used, but not guns,  
but chips implanted under their skin during processing, the empire’s last-ditch effort at revenge against those who betrayed them, they would never find out who activated them.

But at that moment in time Zeb tried to swallow his own issues long enough to focus on Kallus’ problems.

“This isn’t fair for them,” Zeb said, Kallus searched his face wordlessly and shook his head. “I don’t even understand it.”

“It’s one of those things that can’t be understood I suppose,” Kallus said. “Not at the moment.”

Kallus was right, how it happened wasn’t important they were trapped in a hall with two dying children they couldn’t even make feel comfortable.

“There’s a word for that isn’t there?” Zeb asked, hoping to distract Kallus from what was soon to happen.

“Enigma,” Kallus said lowly. “This is enigmatic.”

Zeb decided that was what Kallus was, not his enemy, not really a friend but his enigma.  
Their relationship was twisted in many ways, a murderer and a victim bound together by inescapable connections, but somehow Kallus found a way to occupy a spot in his heart reserved for an enigma, Zeb hadn’t even known existed.

“That’s the one pal,” Zeb said softly.

“They’re not going to make it are they?” Kallus asked suddenly.

For the first since Zeb turned the corner he noticed Kallus looked close to tears, that was something Zeb had only seen once before with Kallus and it didn't sit right with Zeb, he chewed his lip thoughtfully Kallus would know if he lied to him and he always had appreciated bluntness, but that didn’t make telling the truth any easier.

“No,” Zeb said, the children’s eyes were sinking and their eyelids sagged down over them blood lined their lower lids dripping sluggishly onto the floor it was a harrowing sight but it signaled the beginning of the end of their suffering, by now Zeb was positive they had slipped into unconsciousness. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay,” Kallus said quickly looking away.

“Hey, look over here,” Zeb said pointing to the wall above them where sets of claw marks marred the wall. “Did you know we made a language out of scratches?”

“I didn’t,”

“Well there’s a story here, you like those don’t you?” Zeb asked. Kallus nodded mutely and Zeb motioned for him to sit by the wall. Kallus wasn’t perfect but no one deserved to watch their students cook from the inside out. 

Zeb pointed out the beginning of the series slowly as they worked their way down the line the warm wetness that seeped on the floor forced them to stand. Zeb pressed on telling the story of a little boy who walked those halls and hated the slop they were being fed, he politely pretended not to notice how many times Kallus wiped his eyes.

By the time the health department arrived the disruptors had run their course and Kallus had passed out against the far wall Zeb carried him over the carnage, loitering in the halls until the officers determined the cause of death not be infectious and they were allowed outside. Zeb made it out first bracing Kallus’ head gently against his arm as he hopped down the stairs of the camp that had once been his coffin, there was something exhilarating about walking out of the front door instead of squirming underneath the fence like he had done when Kanan rescued him. 

Rain pelted down from the sky, washing the last bits of copper dust from Kallus’ hair and causing the dried blood to pour from Zeb’s fur, it had rained the night Lasan fell after a day of shining sun like tears raining down from above.

This time it felt like freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I feel really bad for Zeb, after watching his planet get brutally wiped out he spends years thinking he’s one of the last of his kind, and while it’s easy to assume that the empire destroyed Lasan in one fell swoop that probably isn’t what happened. Zeb mentions that the wookies helped save some of his people meaning that there were survivors who escaped, from what we don’t know but I have a few ideas.  
> Later we see Gron and Chava being unloaded from shipping crates they were probably being held somewhere before and possibly had escaped when Hondo found them, and they were likely about to be brought in for execution, why do I say that? Because of something Zeb says in the Honorable Ones, when Kallus tells him he’ll be treated fairly Zeb tells him he knows what happens to lasats in imperial custody, Kallus hedges around the truth telling him he doesn’t know much.  
> That right there tells us a few things, the empire did not annihilate the population of lasan in one go, the empire at some point held lasats in custody and three since Zeb would say he was the last of his kind even though he knew some lasats were held in imperial custody they obviously were killed in imperial custody or he knew they would be killed.
> 
> The questions that remained for me was where were they held and how does Zeb know what happens to lasats in imperial custody?
> 
> After some thought I believe they were held on execution camps probably built on their planet because lasats are large and powerful you don’t risk lugging a bunch of them around and having them wake up and kill you, so you keep them on the ground where you can see them, or transport them in small bunches and get rid of them using a method that can efficiently kill a large creature disposing of their bodies are discreetly as possible which may mean burning or grinding them up and doing who knows what with the remains.
> 
> When Zeb saw Chava and Gron he was surprised but not overly so, not like one would expect someone to be when if they truly believed they were the very last of their kind he doesn’t spend the whole episode shocked and he isn’t overjoyed to see them, this is probably because Zeb is aware of the death camps and figured they were being transported from one of them(before it is revealed Hondo is involved) if this is true that also means the death camps are still running during the rebels time period.
> 
> I figured that if there were lasat concentration camps, Zeb was probably in one of them, because from all accounts he seems to be intact and isn’t showing physical signs of being attacked with a disruptor(assuming the way they work still stands as it did in legends) Zeb was also a captain of an important organization what better way to crush a nation’s soul than by imprisoning their leaders? While he was in there he likely saw first hand what happened to lasats in imperial custody, and it probably wasn’t pretty, so the siege of lasan was probably more like a upright genocide, people were killed with the survivors queued to be killed the bulk of it probably stretched on for a year or two with the aftermath stretching out at least 15 years.  
> Seeing Lira San would make him feel better about his race not being extinct, but it wouldn’t change a thing about what happened on Lasan or to him, he’s a victim who has gone through unspeakable atrocities and what happened on Lasan is still a genocide.


End file.
